Annual report indicates increased divorce rate in Israel: Which city is in the lead?

The annual report published by the Israeli rabbinical courts’ management contained interesting statistics regarding Israel’s divorce rate. The report indicates an increased divorce rate and segments the data by area of residence.

The Israeli rabbinical courts’ management published this morning (Tuesday) its activity summary for 2016. The report indicates that there was an increase in couples who got divorced, but also in the number of Agunot able to receive a Jewish divorce. An Agunah (singular form of Agunot) is a halachic term referring to a wife bound in marriage by a husband who refuses to grant her a divorce or who is missing and not proved dead.

The divorce data suggests that there was a 1.8% increase in the number of Jewish couples who got divorced in Israel compared to the previous year. A total of 10,841 Jewish couples got divorced in Israel in 2016, while 10,653 got divorced in 2015.

In 2016, the rabbinical court management’s special unit for releasing Agunot successfully attained Jewish divorces for 211 women, whose husbands either disappeared in Israel or abroad, compared to 180 the previous year, representing a 17% increase.

The report indicated that there was a significant increase in divorce rates within the Israeli cities of Ramat HaSharon, Givatayim, Beit Shemesh, Gedera, Or Yehuda, Modi’in Illit and Zichron Ya’akov. The Israeli city with the most divorces in 2016 is Jerusalem with 725 couples, Tel Aviv with 701 couples and Rishon LeTzion with 441 couples who got divorced.